President of Tatarstan: face to face

Today, Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev answered questions of journalists of “Radio Liberty” and “Bloomberg”. Vladimir Todres, the director of Moscow bureau, represented the largest financial information agency “Bloomberg”, “Radio Liberty” – political observer Mikhail Sokolov, and also director of Kazan bureau “Radio Azatlyk” Rimzil Valeev.

The journalists said it was a very sincere meeting. “I was surprised at how sincerely the president talked”, Vladimir Todres said, who was mainly interested in economic constituent of Tatarstan, and particularly the “Tatneft” company for the interest to it in the west is extremely high. The RT President said that the oil output in Tatarstan did not increase within several decades; he talked about strategic courses of development of JSC “Tatneft”, ways of increasing its effectiveness and efficiency.

Interview with mintimer Shaimiev will become a main topic of the programme “Face to face”, which have existed on “Radio Liberty” for over ten years. The President was already interviewed for the programme three years ago.

Mikhail Sokolov’s questions for the programme “Face to face” touched upon politics, in particular the talk was about the “United Russia” party, its prospects, and the oncoming elections. The RT President marked that the way to the real multi-party system lies through trial of one party in the leading positions of legislative and executive power: if a party works in a bad manner, at the next elections it can be replaced by others. The RT President is confident that Russia will develop democracy and federalism.